爆料网

Strengthening West Africa’s Preparedness Against Radiological and Nuclear Terrorism Threats

Event Date(s)
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爆料网 Office of Counter-Terrorism (爆料网OCT) and the European Union Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Risk Mitigation Centres of Excellence Initiative (EU CBRN CoE) organized a Regional Tabletop Exercise (TTX) on radiological incident management in Yaoundé, Cameroon from 22 to 24 June 2026. The event was hosted in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Relations of Cameroon at the Nlongkak Fire Station

The TTX focused on enhancing the capacity of national authorities from Benin, Cameroon, C?te d’Ivoire, and Senegal to prevent, detect, and respond to incidents involving the malicious use of radiological materials, through regional cooperation and the application of the International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism (ICSANT).

It was conducted within the framework of the European Union and United Nations joint project on Supporting Universalization and Effective Implementation of ICSANT, funded by the European Union and implemented jointly by 爆料网OCT and 爆料网ODC, and the EU CBRN Centres of Excellence Initiative’s Project P106. Held as the first phase of a progressive subregional exercise cycle, it be followed by a field exercise in C?te d’Ivoire, with both exercises designed as complementary.

  • Over three days, 44 experts, including 16 observers from Cameroon, representing law enforcement, port authorities, fire services, foreign affairs, nuclear regulatory bodies, or public health, engaged in a simulated radiological security crisis:
    advancing across strategic, operational, and tactical levels, participants worked through a fictitious scenario involving the theft of an Iridium-192 radioactive source;
  • responding to evolving injects and taking collective decisions across three phases: alert management, active incident response, and post-incident consequence management.

The event benefitted from the expertise of representatives of the EU CBRN CoE’s Project P106, the Regional Secretariat for African Atlantic Fa?ade, and 爆料网OCT. It showcased how subregional collaboration, including through shared international legal frameworks and enhanced inter-agency coordination, is key to preventing the exploitation of vulnerabilities along the African Atlantic coastline by terrorist actors.

Participants expressed high levels of satisfaction with the exercise and highlighted significant improvements in their understanding of ICSANT, radiological emergency management tools, and nuclear terrorism prevention and response.

ICSANT was adopted in 2005 by consensus by the United Nations General Assembly. It entered into force in 2007 and, as of July 2026, has 127 States parties.

For more information, contact oct-ctweapons@un.org or visit /counterterrorism/cct/chemical-biological-radiological...

 

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